Franz Liszt and Violin

Section 1. World music: retrospections and modernity

Abstract

Statement of the problem. One of the important research vectors in historical musicology of the 21st century is the disclosure of little-known pages of the work of outstanding musicians. Such an unexplained page in Ukrainian musicology is the violin music by Franz Liszt, his creative and personal relationships with many famous violinists, and the circumstances of his life that led the great pianist to turn to the violin. Objectives, methods and novelty of the research. The topic of Liszt’s violin works and his various connections with violinists has not yet been considered in Ukrainian Liszt studies, excluding isolated studies dedicated to the memory of the outstanding violinist and pianist N. Plotenyi, who was on friendly terms with Liszt (Rosul,2009; Kumhyr-Novak, 2012). Among the foreign authors who addressed this issue was the Hungarian-American violinist, composer, musicologist, and conductor Tibor Sherly. At the request of the American pianist Eugene List, he restored and prepared Liszt’s then unknown work “Duo Sonata” for violin and piano on themes by Chopin for the performance and publication, having told about it in his article in the “New York Times” (Serly, 1960). Jean Gergely (1960), briefly repeating the story of the discovery of the “Duo Sonata”, concludes that besides the influence of Chopin and Paganini, it contains compositional techniques unusual for the young Liszt, rather characteristic for his last works. The article on Liszt’s chamber music by the English musicologist William Wright (2002) deserves special attention. The author briefly describes the history of Liszt’s instrumental works and arrangements not only for violin, but also for viola, cello, trombone and other instruments, and also mentions his chamber works (trio, quartet, quintet), with numerous references to historical sources. However, this in-depth scientific study does not focus on Liszt’s relationship with violinists, unless it concerns their direct participation in the creative process, nor does it contain general conclusions about the role of the violin as an instrument that inspired Liszt to improve his piano technique, as well as the Hungarian violin music as a stimulus for creative imagination and compositional ideas. In this study, it is important for us to confirm the factual evidence of the composer’s use of the violin throughout his life. After 2002, virtually no studies on this topic were published. The purpose of the article is to show the influence of the violin on various aspects of the formation of Franz Liszt as a pianist and composer, both, as an instrumental technique and as a performing style of prominent violinists, in particular, János Bihari and Niccolo Paganini. The study seeks to emphasize the importance of violin works in the composer’s musical heritage; to consider the genre and style basis of Liszt’s violin works and the history of their creation; to draw attention to the fact that Liszt turned to the violin throughout his life; to explore the composer’s creative ties with his violinist contemporaries, especially with the representatives of the Hungarian violin art. Considerable attention is paid to the large-scale “Duo-Sonata” for violin and piano, an attempt is made to explore the figure of the possible author of the violin part of this work. Historical, deductive and comparative approaches are used, as well as the method of retrospective analysis. Results and conclusions. The creative figure of Franz Liszt is so global and vivid that it is impossible to imagine contemporary musical art without his music and his musical aesthetics. The point is not only that Liszt was a phenomenal virtuoso, a prolific composer, a teacher “from God”, and a brilliant conductor. Liszt created a new aesthetics of piano art, aimed at the mediation of expressive brightness and boundless emotionality characteristic of violin virtuosos’ playing by piano means. It was this that qualitatively distinguished his style from all other virtuoso pianists of his time. The first impetus on this path was the impression of playing by Hungarian violinists, in particular Bihari, and the second – a real emotional and artistic shock from Paganini’s playing. These impulses continued in his further collaboration with great violinists, including С. Ph. Lafont, K. Lipinski, G. Ernst, O. Bull, J. Joachim, L. Spohr, and others. Liszt saw support in his search in the bright aesthetics of the violin school of L. Massar and the playing of his students. Polish violin art and especially Hungarian violin art provided Liszt with invaluable musical ideas. The playing of Hungarian and Gypsy violinists, the Maestro’s long-standing friendship and creative collaboration with E. Reményi and other Hungarian violinists created the conditions for the germination of the intonation basis of the “verbunkos” artistic style in Liszt’s work and the emergence of such masterpieces as the Hungarian Rhapsodies. As we can see, the great composer-pianist turned to the violin throughout his life. Thus, this testifies to the importance and relevance of this instrument for Liszt’s compositional and performing practice and provides grounds for rethinking the place and significance of the violin in his oeuvre.